Bloomberg is out with a widely referenced report this morning that states that Palm is seeking bids for the company as early as this week. The report claims that Palm has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer according to the source. Last week’s rumored suitors Taiwan’s HTC and China based Lenovo have reportedly already looked and are potentially interested. Texas based Dell Inc is said to have already looked at Palm, but passed on a deal.
Naturally Palm, HTC and Lenovo have denied commenting on the latest developments so far. The article goes on to mention that other large Chinese phone companies, Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., might also be potential suitors. Clearly something is in the air given the intensity of recent stock swings and the perpetual M&A rumors. Just last week CEO Jon Rubinstein was out giving interviews talking up the Palm turnaround narrative, while continuing to defend Palm’s performance under the current challenges.